How the Border Patrol has changed over the years

The U.S. established an official border patrol in 1924 with the goal of securing the U.S.-Mexico border. In the photo below, American guards pat down Mexicans who wish to enter the U.S.

The U.S. established an official border patrol in 1924 with the goal of securing the U.S.-Mexico border. In the photo below, American guards pat down Mexicans who wish to enter the U.S.

Photo: Getty Images

Photo: Getty Images

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The U.S. established an official border patrol in 1924 with the goal of securing the U.S.-Mexico border. In the photo below, American guards pat down Mexicans who wish to enter the U.S.

The U.S. established an official border patrol in 1924 with the goal of securing the U.S.-Mexico border. In the photo below, American guards pat down Mexicans who wish to enter the U.S.

Photo: Getty Images

How the Border Patrol has changed over the years

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The agency once known as the U.S. Border Patrol is in its 95th year and in most ways looks nothing like it did when it was created May 28, 1924.

The first recruits received only a badge and a revolver from the federal government. They didn't receive uniforms until December 1924, and even furnished their own horse and saddle. Most of their work was guarding the expanse between border stations.

A year later, the government expanded the agency's duties to patrol the nation's coasts despite having only 450 inspectors. Still, the vast majority of agents patrolled the U.S. border with Canada, a particularly important job during Prohibition.

Meanwhile, the need for Mexican immigrants as laborers meant the U.S. paid relatively little attention to the southern border.

It wasn't until the early 1950s that the federal government turned the agency's attention to the nation's border with Mexico. As undocumented immigration from the south exploded in the 1970s and 1980s, the agency responded with increases in manpower and technology.

The booming U.S. economy in the mid- to late 1980s, along with an increase in drug and human smuggling, persuaded the U.S. to complete its first physical barrier in 1994, a 13-mile wall between San Diego and Tijuana.

Today, the nation's nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico is guarded by several hundred miles of barriers, sensors, cameras, other surveillance equipment and agents of the Customs and Border Protection created in 2003.

Click through the gallery above to see how crossing the border has changed over the past 90-plus years.